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verushka70I don't want to dwell. Or tempt The Fates. But I am just so sick and tired of being sick and tired and in pain and turning out to have "no major health problems." About a week and a half ago, I had a bout of tendinitis so bad I could hardly use the computers at work coupled with a cycle of repeated disabling headaches. Ironically, this began shortly after I went to a big-deal headache clinic here to see why I'm having so many headaches lately.
People come to this clinic from out of state for their treatments. I went because, since about June, I've just been getting these terrible headaches more and more often. I figured it was maybe because of hormonal changes due to perimenopause; my once clockwork periods have not been for the last year, and I've had a terrible upsurge in my adult acne which I also figured was hormonal in origin.
I don't have insurance so it cost me $445 for my super duper headache clinic visit. (I did have insurance; I signed up last winter for Obamacare, but I did not qualify for any subsidies or tax breaks, and it was expensive and, long story short, it wouldn't have mattered if I still had the insurance; the policy had a $6000 up front deductible before it covered me 60/40, and only preventive care was covered 100%, like mammograms and Pap smears -- so I would have had to pay $445 out of pocket to see the headache specialist anyway.)
Anyway after a full history and physical and a neuro exam, the doc diagnosed me with migraines. This surprised me, because I thought I didn't have migraines. They run in my family, but I've never had the symptoms of my two sisters with migraines. (Visuals, auras, nausea, etc. -- very, very rarely, like once every 3 years or so, I get a visual that initially starts out looking like an afterimage of staring in a bright light, and then gets larger and larger and "grows", and it's only in one eye. But that's rare.)
I was like, "Well, I just thought it was my bruxism/fibro/TMJ." He was like, "Oh, no -- you have all that; you just have migraines superimposed on top of that." He went on to explain that some of the weirder symptoms I've had (constantly tearing eyes, which I associated with terrible seasonal allergies/sinusitis; like transient tinnitis that goes back and forth between my ears, then disappears, which I associated with too-loud headphone use in the 1990s; like piercing pain wrapped like a band around my head, which I figured was from the bruxism/TMJ) are all symptoms of migraines.
Who knew. (I confess I never read up much on migraines because I had all this other stuff and because my sisters' (and my aunt's) migraine symptoms were so horrible and dramatic, and my headaches were not like those, so I just assumed that I had really bad tension headaches exacerbated by the TMJ, bruxism, and fibromyalgia).
So he wrote me an RX for 3 meds, 2 of which I've been on before (topiramate and tizanidine) and 1 which was new (Toradol generic ketorolac, which I didn't even know came in oral form; I've only ever given it IV to patients in the hospital). I was like, Yay, that's what I wanted: meds I ran out of a few years ago but which worked before.
He also wrote me a RX for some lab work. CBC, CMP, and a Prolactin (to look for "an organic cause" for my headaches -- i.e., increased prolactin due to a possible pituitary tumor). That was nice; I could pick my own lab, and there is a lab nearby that has pretty reasonable prices and are also very patient friendly. When I got there, I asked them if they could add a full cholesterol lipid panel on even though the doctor didn't order it, and they said sure. (Maybe it's because they know I'm a nurse, and I've gone in for pre-job testing there, but I suspect they are this accommodating to everyone. It's that kind of unassuming, hole in the wall place.)
So I got the results mailed to me with a letter from the headache clinic doctor saying that everything was normal. Really, everything was great. I am no longer anemic, which means I can start donating blood again (probably this is because I'm perimenopausal and my periods have become irregular). My cholesterol panel was basically fantastic. Everything else (liver enzymes, kidney function, thyroid) was "normal" -- within normal limits.
The day after the blood work, though -- a Friday -- I had a terrible migraine that lasted until Saturday night. The following Tuesday I got another one at work. That Friday I got another one that lasted until Saturday night. And this weekend, I started getting by about 5pm last night that did not go away until this afternoon. This is WITH taking the meds as RXed.
At first when I read all my lab results, I was like, Yay! happy, happy, joy, joy! I have no major health problems. And, don't get me wrong -- that IS fantastic. I am not diabetic, I don't have high blood pressure, my anemia appears to have normalized, and my lipids/cholesterol are great (like they were last time I had them done, several years ago now).
Now it's a few days later and I'm like, Well that's just fucking great. I have no major health problems.
I'm exhausted all the time; I can barely drag myself to work; my time off work is often spent in excruciating pain (but then, that sometimes happens at work, too); my sleep is unrestful; my head, neck, upper back, and teeth hurt most of the time; I often feel like a woman twice my age; I'm often barely functioning (despite taking antidepressants, 3 new meds for migraines, a few OTC allergy/sinus/pain meds, and a boatload -- literally, like 2 shoeboxes -- of vitamins, supplements and herbs to try to decrease pain, get better sleep and fucking feel better) --
but there's nothing wrong with me.
I know that I am lucky to have no major health problems. I don't mean to tempt The Fates by complaining, because god knows it could be so much worse.
But I'm just physically miserable. Yet my lab work is fantastic and makes me look like there is nothing wrong with me.
People come to this clinic from out of state for their treatments. I went because, since about June, I've just been getting these terrible headaches more and more often. I figured it was maybe because of hormonal changes due to perimenopause; my once clockwork periods have not been for the last year, and I've had a terrible upsurge in my adult acne which I also figured was hormonal in origin.
I don't have insurance so it cost me $445 for my super duper headache clinic visit. (I did have insurance; I signed up last winter for Obamacare, but I did not qualify for any subsidies or tax breaks, and it was expensive and, long story short, it wouldn't have mattered if I still had the insurance; the policy had a $6000 up front deductible before it covered me 60/40, and only preventive care was covered 100%, like mammograms and Pap smears -- so I would have had to pay $445 out of pocket to see the headache specialist anyway.)
Anyway after a full history and physical and a neuro exam, the doc diagnosed me with migraines. This surprised me, because I thought I didn't have migraines. They run in my family, but I've never had the symptoms of my two sisters with migraines. (Visuals, auras, nausea, etc. -- very, very rarely, like once every 3 years or so, I get a visual that initially starts out looking like an afterimage of staring in a bright light, and then gets larger and larger and "grows", and it's only in one eye. But that's rare.)
I was like, "Well, I just thought it was my bruxism/fibro/TMJ." He was like, "Oh, no -- you have all that; you just have migraines superimposed on top of that." He went on to explain that some of the weirder symptoms I've had (constantly tearing eyes, which I associated with terrible seasonal allergies/sinusitis; like transient tinnitis that goes back and forth between my ears, then disappears, which I associated with too-loud headphone use in the 1990s; like piercing pain wrapped like a band around my head, which I figured was from the bruxism/TMJ) are all symptoms of migraines.
Who knew. (I confess I never read up much on migraines because I had all this other stuff and because my sisters' (and my aunt's) migraine symptoms were so horrible and dramatic, and my headaches were not like those, so I just assumed that I had really bad tension headaches exacerbated by the TMJ, bruxism, and fibromyalgia).
So he wrote me an RX for 3 meds, 2 of which I've been on before (topiramate and tizanidine) and 1 which was new (Toradol generic ketorolac, which I didn't even know came in oral form; I've only ever given it IV to patients in the hospital). I was like, Yay, that's what I wanted: meds I ran out of a few years ago but which worked before.
He also wrote me a RX for some lab work. CBC, CMP, and a Prolactin (to look for "an organic cause" for my headaches -- i.e., increased prolactin due to a possible pituitary tumor). That was nice; I could pick my own lab, and there is a lab nearby that has pretty reasonable prices and are also very patient friendly. When I got there, I asked them if they could add a full cholesterol lipid panel on even though the doctor didn't order it, and they said sure. (Maybe it's because they know I'm a nurse, and I've gone in for pre-job testing there, but I suspect they are this accommodating to everyone. It's that kind of unassuming, hole in the wall place.)
So I got the results mailed to me with a letter from the headache clinic doctor saying that everything was normal. Really, everything was great. I am no longer anemic, which means I can start donating blood again (probably this is because I'm perimenopausal and my periods have become irregular). My cholesterol panel was basically fantastic. Everything else (liver enzymes, kidney function, thyroid) was "normal" -- within normal limits.
The day after the blood work, though -- a Friday -- I had a terrible migraine that lasted until Saturday night. The following Tuesday I got another one at work. That Friday I got another one that lasted until Saturday night. And this weekend, I started getting by about 5pm last night that did not go away until this afternoon. This is WITH taking the meds as RXed.
At first when I read all my lab results, I was like, Yay! happy, happy, joy, joy! I have no major health problems. And, don't get me wrong -- that IS fantastic. I am not diabetic, I don't have high blood pressure, my anemia appears to have normalized, and my lipids/cholesterol are great (like they were last time I had them done, several years ago now).
Now it's a few days later and I'm like, Well that's just fucking great. I have no major health problems.
I'm exhausted all the time; I can barely drag myself to work; my time off work is often spent in excruciating pain (but then, that sometimes happens at work, too); my sleep is unrestful; my head, neck, upper back, and teeth hurt most of the time; I often feel like a woman twice my age; I'm often barely functioning (despite taking antidepressants, 3 new meds for migraines, a few OTC allergy/sinus/pain meds, and a boatload -- literally, like 2 shoeboxes -- of vitamins, supplements and herbs to try to decrease pain, get better sleep and fucking feel better) --
but there's nothing wrong with me.
I know that I am lucky to have no major health problems. I don't mean to tempt The Fates by complaining, because god knows it could be so much worse.
But I'm just physically miserable. Yet my lab work is fantastic and makes me look like there is nothing wrong with me.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-24 12:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-24 03:39 pm (UTC)